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The Strength Report: Developing the Explosive Athlete - Defensive Backsby: Jimmy RadcliffeHead Strength & Conditioning Coach, University of Oregon © More from this issue The philosophy on training high level football athletes is a basic one with simple principles. Each individual athlete, for the two to five years of their athletic career, will establish specific goals and objectives for themselves. As a commitment to ‘training’ as a high level or elite competitor, what can reliably be improved upon to develop a better skilled player or defensive back? Within the terms of training, for the game of football long term, is the length of the athlete’s career. Being more powerful in the ability to get out of a stance, accelerate to a certain point, be forceful in engagement with an opponent, and agile enough to power through, around and from that engagement quickly and efficiently are all important to make whatever play is necessary. Individuals do not necessarily use their incredible weight room strength to allow themselves to be better football players. The same thought processes are evident with speed. The athletes that are exceptionally fast straight ahead have promise but are extremely limited if they are unable to use that speed in a multitude of directions. A third point to be emphasized is that of transitional agility which involves change of direction. This change can be on the field as from point A to point B and then on to another point. It is also a change of direction in the most basic movement form: within the body. The body's postural and coordinated ability to make the transition from flexion to extension and back with rotation is the basis for all agile movement on the field of play. Before defensive backs can control an opponent, they must first be able to control themselves. As we watch a skillful football game being played at any level, certain players stand out, usually those that put themselves into a position to make big plays. The ability to get from a starting point to any and all other points on the field is paramount and necessitates top placement in training priority. It is extremely important to train the football defensive back to exhibit greater mobility and agility which we define as: • A fluid movement throughout great ranges in: all planes of direction, the posture, balance, stability and increased range of flexibility involved in flexion, extension and rotation of the body at the most efficient speeds possible. • Having efficient movement transitions with changes in direction. The ability to make speed cuts and power cuts in a reactive manner and project the hips in any desired direction quickly. For defensive backs as with most positions, the ability to move into and out of a position to ‘turn and run’ is a primary factor. The Seasonal Plan These plans should depict the goals and methods for strength, speed, agility and the enduring effects of these qualities (‘power endurance’ for lack of a better term) for each and every phase. Traditional lifting transitions through the winter deal with longer build-up phases to increase joint range of motion, muscular endurance and hypertrophy. This is intertwined with maximum strength phases, maintaining range-of-motion and technique. Attention to power should begin in the winter or post-season period and should never be completely departed from in the following training periods. The off-season period is again segmented with a shorter muscular build-up phase and more maximum strength with continued power development. The pre-competitive period is similar to the greatest time spent in power development: speed and strength more specific to the desired competitive results. The pre-season is truly where the training should mimic the specificity of practice and game without actually being such. Starts and acceleration training is of prime emphasis in the post-season/transition field training. Technical emphasis is on starts from differing stances and acceleration mechanics. The accelerations from forward, lateral and backward starting positions lead into the proper techniques necessary. This is for deceleration into the speed and power change of direction (cutting) mechanics performed in the agility portions of training. The spring off-season segment is a progression from acceleration to speed. Training takes movement patterns out to slightly longer distances and places more emphasis on drills which cover greater portions of the field. The pre-season (summer) culminates the field training with starts, accelerations, decelerations and changes of direction into more of a speed endurance setting. These summer training bouts best simulate the work-to-rest ratio similar to game conditions and ‘clutch’ or ‘no-huddle’ situations. In all of the training periods, at least one day per week includes a couple of sets of position specific sprints (some coaches refer to these as metabolics). These sprinting reps are in a series of starts, accelerations and movements that completely mimic game play from that specific position, such as drops, breaks and recoveries by defensive backs. Weekly Objectives: Off Season • Begin every training routine with preparation warm-up activities that are movement oriented and emphasize core stability and mobility. • Exercises that are the most dynamic and explosive should precede those geared for absolute or relative strength. • Train with the higher intensities early, tapering to moderate or lighter percentages of load in the later part of the week. • General acceleration work to start the conditioning week, special speed work in the middle and specific work capacities to finish off the week. Examples of a pre-season (summer) week are as follows: Monday Core Work Dynamic Lift Plyometrics Starts & Accelerations Tuesday Core Work Strength Lift Run Technique Position Speed Specific & Tempo Wednesday Rest Thursday Core Work Dynamic Lift Plyometrics Speed & Agility Work Friday Core Work Strength Lift Mobility Speed Endurance In-Season • Begin every training routine with preparational warm-up activities that are movement oriented and emphasize core stability and mobility. • Work capacity early as an aid to the past week’s recovery as well as base for the new week of training. Mid-week is attention to position specific conditioning and high quality. • Changes of direction. Finish the week with emphasis on efficient reactions and effective accelerations. • Strength work early, more dynamic in the middle, and elastic-reactive work the day prior to competition day to aid in uploading the nervous system. Examples of a competition week are as follows: Monday Core Warm-up Strength Lift Practice Work Capacity Conditioning Tuesday Practice Position Conditioning Wednesday Core Warm-up Dynamic Lift Practice Agility Conditioning Thursday Practice Starts & Acceleration Friday Core Warm-up Reactive Lift Walk-Through Saturday Game Day The culmination of training the skill position football athlete is the ability to play one on one, or man on man ‘mirror dodge’ for a series of movement sequences. This should be within certain constraints, such as hands behind the back, within a five-yard sideline, inside a circle or ring, etc. Training this ability is fun, hard work, technical and can be extremely productive as a conditioning tool. A final note as to development of football power is to look at the percentage of training involved and assess the actual training year. Each year deemed successful according to health, development and performance is shown in the following percentages: Program Emphasis: Weight training-25% Plyometrics-15% Movement specific-25% Sprint Resistance-10% Speed Endurance-20% Sprint Assistance-5% Jimmy Radcliffe has been Oregon’s head strength and conditioning coach for the last 19 seasons. He became assistant strength coach at Oregon in 1985, a position he held for two years before assuming the duties of head coach. Radcliffe graduated from Pacific, (OR) playing four seasons at defensive back. He earned his Master's Degree from Oregon in 1992. |
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